Jennings a surprise scratch

SEATTLE – The Vikings had a shake-up in their wide receiver corps in Sunday's 41-20 loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Greg Jennings was a surprise injured inactive, while Jerome Simpson lost his starting job — for exactly one play — as punishment for his drunken driving arrest last week.

Jennings was listed as probable on the final injury report after dealing with a left Achilles' injury in practice this week. Coach Leslie Frazier was asked on Friday if he had any concerns about Jennings not being able to play Sunday.

"No, he'll be ready to go," Frazier said.

However, Jennings said he woke up Sunday morning in pain and decided he couldn't play after testing it during early warmups.

"It didn't heal as well as we thought," Jennings said. "Obviously when you wake up, you want to play. My mind-set was that I was going to go out there and play. But I woke up and it didn't feel good enough to play. I wasn't going to put myself or my team in that position."

Jennings said he's not sure how he suffered the injury.

Asked if he plans to play against his former team, the Green Bay Packers, this Sunday, Jennings said, "That's the game plan."

Frazier said Jennings' injury affected Simpson's punishment. Rookie Cordarrelle Patterson made his first start in place of Simpson. The team consulted with the league to determine what disciplinary actions were permissible under the collective bargaining agreement.

Patterson started, but Simpson entered the game on the second play.

"A little bit of that had to do with the injury to Greg," Frazier said. "That changed the dynamics for what we wanted to be able to do."

Frazier declined to say whether Simpson's punishment would have been different had Jennings been able to play.

Simpson caught one pass for only 1 yard.

"When my number is called, I need to play," Simpson said when asked about being benched. "I can't really worry about that situation and not starting."

Jarius Wright started in place of Jennings and had the best game of his career. He finished with three catches for 69 yards and two touchdowns.

"That feels good, but at the same time, losing leaves a sour taste in your mouth," Wright said. "It's a bittersweet feeling, but I think more about the loss than what I did in this game."

Wright beat All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman on his 38-yard touchdown catch in the first half.

Wilson improved to 13-0 at CenturyLink Field and he now has 21 career victories, tying Dan Marino for second-most in NFL history through the first two seasons. Pittsburgh's Ben Roethlisberger won 22 games his first two seasons.

"I have been in love with Russell since I got over here," former Vikings receiver Percy Harvin said. "He just makes everybody else feel that much more comfortable because he knows the system so much. If anything ever happens, you just go to him and he'll put you where you need to be."

Both of Wilson's touchdown passes carried a high degree of difficulty. On his 19-yard touchdown to Doug Baldwin with 10 seconds left in the first half, Wilson squeezed his throw between cornerback Xavier Rhodes and safety Andrew Sendejo.

He executed a trick pass to Marshawn Lynch for a 6-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter. Under pressure, Wilson flipped the ball to Lynch, who was actually his fourth read on the play.

"Just a little shortstop/ second baseman flip," said Wilson, a former minor league baseball player. "A little double play."

• The Seahawks set a franchise record with their 13th consecutive home victory.

• The Vikings other inactives were quarterback Josh Freeman, cornerback Shaun Prater, running back Matt Asiata, guard Jeff Baca, tight end Kyle Rudolph and nose tackle Letroy Guion.